There are very few times in my life when I have heard something and thought to myself, “That’s it. That’s what I’ve been waiting for all these years. That is the apex of music!” Feeling like I have remembered something new, that I had been waiting to remember, that I had rediscovered what I had been waiting for, did happen when I first heard the band called The Divine Comedy. (When I head The Divine Comedy it was like I had a puzzle piece missing from my brain all my life, and Neil Hannon’s music came along and fit right in place. I had been waiting for his music for so many years and didn’t even know it.) I believe it also happened when I first head the album Rio by Duran Duran. But, this was a once in roughly every 10 years occurrence for me. (I probably first head the album Rio in 1991, and I first head The Divine Comedy in 1999, and I first heard Aaron Copland in 1985.) And none of these examples made me say to myself “this is the apex of music; It does not get better than this. This is the culmination from ancient times to modern times, and to this day!”

But I did recently have this experience with a body of music. Not a large body of music, unfortunately; But, a weightier body than most. And, the discovery was years in the making.

Most of us have heard of Ryuichi Sakamoto. He might be best known in the USA for wining an Oscar for the soundtrack for The Last Emperor. I, personally, first knew who he was because he was in the band Yellow Magic Orchestra, and had a couple of their albums when I was in High School. (They are an extremely important bookmark in the history of music, but I will not go into it in this post. I will say I first herd of them described as the Kraftwerk of Japan. But, I now think that this comparison is a misinformed description. But, hopefully, I can write more about YMO later.) Sakamoto San has had an extremely prolific career. He has been much more accomplished and fruitful than most people in the USA know (and he’s still going though he’s in his 60s now).

Mr. Sakamoto Ryuichi was classically trained, studied traditional Japanese music, has a background in the new synthesizer technology of the 70s, and was full of talent back when he joined Haruomi Hosono’s short lived Yellow Magic Band to make the gorgeous album Paraiso (I would like to say more about Hosono San, and hope to in the future, as he’s probably one of the best songwriters I have ever heard, and probably one of the most important musicians of the past 50 years, but I hope to get to that later. Needless to say, there is a very long back story to every component to his work and all the people and creations I mention in this post). As a contributor to Hosono’s Paraiso, Sakamoto showed amazing talent. When Hosono had the idea to form an all electronic band (when some electric bass too, but drawing on western stereotypes of the east and a Pacific Ocean feel influenced by exotic albums recorded in the 50s and 60s), he ended up recruiting Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi (who had been part of the successful Sadistic Miki Band) to form Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Fast forward a few years and Yellow Magic Orchestra had become one of the biggest acts in music from Japan. Sakamoto was poised to hit the music industry with great success.

At the same time, in the late 70s, in the United Kingdom, a glam rock band ironically named Japan was listening to Bowie’s Berlin albums and thinking they needed to change their sound. They briefly teamed up with Giorgio Moroder and recorded the single “Life in Tokyo,” and I believe they also did “European Son.“ Having made these records, they became one of the very first New Wave/New Romantic bands (a label they hated, I am told). Japan went on to make 3 more albums that are all masterpieces of sound of the time. (I have mentioned their final album previously on this blog. I would like to say more about what they did, but hopefully I will get to that in the future.) Somehow, Japan made New Wave pop that was also some of the most well crafted art of it’s time. Their last two albums are works of stunning beauty. They are a combination of kraut-rock influenced Bowie, with funky bass/rhythm (thanks to the late Mick Kern), perfect analogue synth melodies, and finally the brooding, dark British lounge inspired vocals of David Sylvian.

Sakamoto and David Sylvian first worked together when they wrote and produced “Taking Islands in Africa” together for the Japan album Gentlemen Take Polaroids, in about 1980. I don’t know how they met, or what brought them together. I would like to elaborate more in the future after having done some research, but, making this song together would be the beginning of many collaborations over the past 35ish years.

By 1981, Japan made their masterpiece Tin Drum, which I have mentioned before as probably one of my favorite, if not my favorite, albums. It is an amazing fusion of eastern pentatonic scaled melodies, beautiful analogue synth sounds (often percussive), funky bass, unique rhythms, western pop and new wave. I thought it was about as good as it gets. I thought, but then, I took one more step.

In 1983, Ryuichi Sakamoto, already a star in Japan (the country) was commissioned to write the soundtrack to the film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. The theme went on to be very well known. Wanting a single, at the time, that could be internationally successful, Sakamoto teamed up with David Sylvian to take the theme and make it a pop single. Sylvian wrote lyrics to Sakamoto’s music, and they rerecorded the “song.” The vocal version of the theme to Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, was entitled “Forbidden Colours.”

Sakamoto and Sylvian had previously produced a single together, in 1982, called “Bamboo Music.” The B-side to this single was “Bamboo Houses.”

I finally went looking for a CD copy of “Frobidden Colours” and stumbled upon a CD single. The Forbidden Colours CD single is actually a combination of Bamboo Music/Bamboo Houses vinyl single release from 1982 and the single English lyric release of “Forbidden Colours” from 1983. I believe when CD technology was young, they put these 3 songs together on this 3inch CD. A few years later, noticing that no one else was printing 3inch CDs, and many CD players could not actually play them, the 3 song single was again printed as a full size CD.

I bought a copy of this CD single, and was surprised to find it as a 3inch CD! I have several thousand CDs (a lot of Vinyl too), but I have never seen a 3 inch music CD. It did play fine though, but does not fit my car CD player. Also, it did not include the longer mix/edit of “Forbidden Colours,” which I believe to be superior to the shorter single edit. So, I found and bought the full sized CD single version of Forbidden Colours.

And here it was, the apex of music, as the disk spins, I think, “it does not get any better than this. This is the culmination of all music from the beginning of man kind to the present.” Though there are only 3 songs, “Forbidden Colours,” “Bamboo Houses,” and “Bamboo Music,” this disk may be the best I have ever heard! Perfect production, amazing songwriting, great vocals, great rhythms, artistic, catchy, experimental, unique, and beautiful. One could even say this is one step above Tin Drum. I had that moment were it all came together. “This is the culmination of all music. This is the best thing I have ever heard, maybe.” If, “this the best?” where do they go from here? History has played out, and you can look it up. But, I ask anyone to listen to these three songs, and behold how wonderful music can be; Experience how amazing it can be. And think, if Sakamoto and Sylvain had made a full 8 to 10 song album instead of only 3 songs, how great that album could have been! But, no point in speculating; no way of knowing what could have been. Let us be grateful for the gift that this duo has given us.